Azernews.Az

By Aynur Karimova

Kazakhstan's National Bank continues to implement measures aimed at alleviating sharp fluctuations in the exchange rate of its national currency, the tenge.

The remark was made by Kairat Kelimbetov, the head of the National Bank on June 15.

"The official exchange rate of the National Bank was 185.95 tenge per $1 as of June 1, 2015. Currently, the National Bank continues to pursue the exchange rate policy aimed at smoothing sharp jumps and short-term exchange rate volatility," he noted at the plenary session of the Kazakh Senate.

Kelimbetov recalled that the annual inflation rate was 7.4 percent in 2014, while inflation in May 2015 stood at 0.3 percent. Since the beginning of the year, the consumer price index for the country kept at 1.5 percent.

"The reduction of inflation rate in comparison with 2014 has contributed to the decrease in prices of non-food goods mainly by means of products imported from neighboring countries," Kelimbetov said. "In general, prices in the domestic consumer market remain stable, and the volume of money supply is adequate to the observed economic growth."

Fluctuations of oil prices across world markets have impacted energy rich Kazakhstan, whose economy mostly depends on oil exports, forcing the country to slash government spending.

The government is also grappling with economic difficulties associated with a burgeoning recession in Russia, Kazakhstan’s biggest trading partner.

The government is making all efforts to prevent sharp fluctuations in the national currency. The state has worked out a series of measures to prevent a sharp rise in inflation, one of which is its new monetary policy.

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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova

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